Almost a year to the day since I (re) started couch to five k I ran my first official race yesterday - the iconic Chariots of Fire beach race at St Andrews. "Only" 5k along the sand, skirting the sea, dressed in white , to the tunes of Vangelis, with a piper at the half way turn.

Run I did, keeping a relatively constant pace with no walking or stopping and managed it in 38.05 chip time, not speedy I know and made me 457th out of 514 runners, but a huge achievement for me- who a year ago struggled with the one minute runs in week one of the programme.

Thankyou C25K - I feel have really done it now, and if you are on the journey keep going! Run the dream, as chariots would say!!

You so should next year! . It's an annual event in aid of world wide cancer research. I plan to return and beat this time! Sand is hard to run on (and your shoes fill with sand) but apart from start and finish we were on hard sand by the sea. Some runners even ran in the water! Some were barefoot too!

Oh do it next year! It was fun. I had never run on sand either. The vast majority was on the firm sand down by the water and good to run on. However the start/ finish was really difficult on the soft sand and I was worried I would trip!

What a great photo - you look very happy and proud (as of course you should be!). Running on sand must be tricky, I wonder if bare feet would have been easier? It sounds a wonderful setting and atmospheric event. Congratulations